"Best Of Living Here" Newsmakers Episode Honored With An Emmy

A team from KRWG Public Media at New Mexico State University has won a highly competitive Rocky Mountain Emmy Award for its half-hour “Newsmakers-Best of Living Here” show. Watch the program at the bottom of this post.

KRWG production manager Joe Widmer, producer Christian Valle and TV production supervisor Ralph Escandón received the Arts/Entertainment-Program Special Emmy, a highly competitive award with entries from four western states. This is the first joint Emmy for Widmer, Valle and Escandón.

"The 'Living Here' series is consistently some of the best local television in the region. The work has been so outstanding that we decided to produce special Newsmakers episodes featuring the best segments of the year. It's great to see this work be recognized with an Emmy award," said KRWG Director of Content Fred Martino, who also serves as Newsmakers executive producer and anchor.

“I’m thrilled to see our staff recognized at this prestigious competition,” said KRWG general manager Adrian Velarde. “We’re fortunate to have such a talented group producing this high level of content for our viewers in southwest New Mexico and far west Texas.”

The “Living Here” project that won the award was a half-hour “Best of Living Here” show that featured five individual “Living Here” pieces from the production team. “Living Here” features stories about the arts, culture and people of southern New Mexico.

“I am extremely proud to receive this Emmy award,” Widmer said. “We put a lot of hard work into all of our productions, but I think our ‘Living Here’ pieces are the most rewarding. These projects allow us to think outside the box and create stories that give our viewers a unique perspective. To be recognized by our peers in the television industry is a great honor, and I am so proud of our production team.”

Escandón said he was surprised by the award win, but is proud of all the work done at KRWG.

“Winning this Emmy was very special to me because I didn’t really expect it,” Escandón said. “Being recognized by your peers for your work is special and truly an honor.”

Valle said he was inspired to produce the “Best of Living Here” show by the amount of show segments KRWG has produced individually since 2015. He wrote and produced five half-hour shows featuring 23 segments that focused on different places and people in southern New Mexico, from the state parks to the different cities in the area and museums that cover a variety of topics, to local artists with a unique craft and historic places of significance that people may not know about.

“Winning this award means that our work is recognized by our peers and we have achieved the highest level of excellence in our field. It feels great to be recognized,” Valle said. “This award means a great deal to achieve but it all comes down to being a team and the support from everyone at the station has helped in one way or another.”

The Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences serves Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and El Centro, California. Every year, the organization recognizes excellence in television by honoring exceptional work through the Emmy Awards.